CDMX - Museo de Arte Popular and Museo Mural Diego Rivera

We started the day with souvernir-shopping. The Mercado de Artisanias La Ciudadela is north of Roma Norte and has several artisan shops and workshops selling artifacts in the style of Oaxaca and other parts of Mexico. Several things are just cheap souvenirs, se saw shop owners diligently sitting and removing made-in-china labels from small souvenirs. But there is also real art mixed together with the cheap stuff. Those things are beutiful and expensive. From the market we headed to the Museo de Arte Popular, which was recommended to us by two Canadian ladies from our tour in Xochimilco. And damn they were right! It is worth every minute spent in it. The building is also interesting, it has an internal courtyard and the exhibition rooms are around it scattered over 4 floors.

From the museum we walked to the Diego River's famous mural museum. Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (“Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central”). Rivera painted it in 1947 for the Versalles dining room of the Hotel del Prado, across from the Alameda. The mural is basically his giant visual “dream” of Mexico: more than a hundred figures from roughly 400 years of Mexican history all gathered in one park scene. Its rescue story is part of why the museum exists. In 1960, the mural was moved from the restaurant to the hotel lobby and mounted on a metal support structure. That turned out to save it: when the 1985 Mexico City earthquake almost destroyed the Hotel del Prado, the original restaurant was in ruins, but the mural could still be rescued. In December 1986, it was carefully protected, moved to its current site, and the museum was then built around it; the Museo Mural Diego Rivera opened in 1988.

For lunch we returned to the taqueria Califa de Leon, which is probably the cheapest Michelin-star restaurant of the workd, the beef-fillet tacos are fantastic. As tasty and juicy it is, I'm not sure about the trend of Michelin to give stars to restaurants without proper service and seating. You basically need to take your plate and drink and go to the neighbor shop and ask to sit there. Then at the end you need to tip them something for it. It's a little weird but for the taste it's totally worth it! Just ignore the fact that they have a star and you'll enjoy it very much. Finally we did some grocery and souvenir shopping in a proper supermarket in Polanco.